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The Old Yard
On the eastern side of Park Road stood a row of
terraced houses numbered 7 to 10, with a large entrance
in the middle, leading to a courtyard and four houses at
the back. The houses at the back were numbered back 7 to
back 10 respectively. The courtyard, known as “The Old
Yard” or "Th'owd Yard" was home to a close and happy
community. In the yard were four brewhouses and two
toilets, which were shared by the residents in the
houses at the front and back. Behind the old yard stood
a similar courtyard in Factory Street, called "The Cat
Yard".
The houses consisted of just two small rooms up and
two small rooms down, except for numbers 8 and 9, which
each had an extra bedroom above the courtyard entrance.
They were heated by open coal fires, and had a cooking
range built around the kitchen fire. There were cellars
for storing coal, with an outside coal hole, and
home-made wooden partitions inside, so that both coal
and food could be stored.
All of the houses were originally lit by oil lamps
until the 1920s when gas lighting was installed in the
four front houses only. At night an oil lamp would be
hung below the landing ceiling to light the stairs and
the bedrooms, via open doors. The ceiling above the
lamps soon blackened due to the soot from the lamps. A
delivery man would call every week with a fresh supply
of lamp oil. |
